Chertoff....Grrrrrrr

In an almost hysterical attempt to appear tough on illegal immigration, Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff stated the following -

"Our goal at DHS (Homeland Security) is to completely eliminate the 'catch and release' enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions."
"Through a comprehensive approach, we are moving to end this 'catch and release' style of border enforcement by reengineering our detention and removal process."

Is Chertoff suddenly bucking Bush?

It would appear not, with Bush reasserting his desire to legalize illegal immigrants. Bush stated -

"This will allow us to hold more non-Mexican illegal immigrants while we process them through a program we call `expedited removal,'" "Putting more of these non-Mexican illegal immigrants through expedited removal is crucial to ending the problem of catch-and- release."

The Real Effect

I suspect that this has several possible implications:

1. This is merely a overblown attempt to publicize the image that the government and President Bush is serious about the ramifications of illegal immigration. 2) It would seem that Bush's statement squares up with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE)"Endgame" report that states the ICE will...

   "Develop a National Custody Management Plan promoting the effective utilization of available bed space and alternative detention settings. In response to its fiscal stakeholders, DRO will develop a national custody management plan to ensure that the facility use is standard throughout the country and that bed space use is optimized for cost efficiency."

2. Basically as I understand it, this calls for the the construction of enough detention centers to house up to 5 million people or 1/60th of the American populace. I believe that it is very possible that this will be joined together with a post-Katrina empowered FEMA that will be used to oppress the American people in the coming years. As far as immigration purposes, I will believe they are serious about this when I see it implemented. Until then, don't hold your breath...

Edited for appearance, spelling and labels on 4/15/2010.